Sinéad

You Never Forget Your First

I think a lot about the various archetypes in our society and how each generation has their own heroes and villains that fill those roles. You’ll hear me call someone a poor-man’s blank (an easy and tired analogy to be fair) or “our blank,” it’s part of my record-dork charm.🤓 There are the contentious, opinionated ones like ‘Dave Grohl is my generation’s Tom Petty’ and there are the personal ones that can’t be taken from you because that’s the way they happened to you like ‘Sinéad O’Connor was my first protest singer.’

I had read about and seen videos of musicians protesting just like everyone else but that was all history, not my life. I knew and loved her ridiculously huge version of Prince’s “Nothing Compares 2 You” and I had some understanding of her “feistiness” I think but other than that I didn’t know much else.

When she tore up the picture of the Pope on Saturday Night Live I remember feeling like I was seeing someone stand up against something in real time and how of the moment it felt. To be fair, I was about 16 years old so who knows what my frontal lobe was doing to my poor brain that night.

So here’s to Sinead, who showed me what bravery and integrity looked like and that they weren’t just words on a page in an old history book. I hope she has found her peace.

Love,

B